Nashville Union And American

SPEECH OF SENATOR DOUGLAS, OF ILLINOIS,
On the Army Appropriation Bill; Delivered in the Senate, August 27th, 1856.

MR. DOUGLAS: Mr. President, the Senator from New York [Mr. Seward] who has just taken his seat has made himself merry over the prospect of the defeat of the appropriation bill for the army. I have never seen him so exultant and jubilant since he has been a member of this body as on the occasion of what he considers to be the great triumph which he hopes to achieve in paralyzing at least one of the departments of the government. He has referred to the evils and the mischievous and unfortunate consequences which may result and has made them the subject of ridicule, and of laughter and of mirth. I confess that I listened to him with no pleasure when I heard him discussing the question in that mood. I confess that I am not able to sympathize with the tone of feeling which makes him so exultant in the prospect of such consequences.

That mischiefs must result from the defeat of the general appropriation bill for the army, is a fact to which no one for a moment can close his eyes. That it must have a deranging and disorganizing effect on all the operations of that department, of the government, if it does not entirely paralyze them, is certainly true. That it must bring suffering and distress to a very large portion of the people of the United States is admitted by all. That it must bring discredit upon this country abroad in the eyes of the whole civilized world, no one can question, Why, then, should this be a subject of rejoicing? Sir, the history of the world shows that whenever an attempt has been made to overthrow any government, good or bad, the first step has been to cripple and destroy the army. Revolutionists at all times-men bent on the destruction of their government, no matter by what purpose animated, or what cause they allege to justify themselves, first attempt to destroy the regular force of the country. I have no sympathy in this movement-have never admired that complacency which can rejoice in public misfortunes, since I read the story of Nero, who could make himself merry and fiddle while Rome was burning!

Sir, circumstances have begun to develope themselves which enable us now to see the whole scheme which has been plotted and arranged, and is now being executed. The first part of the scheme was to defeat the appropriations for the Territory of Kansas, and, if possible, to paralyze the civil government there. The next was to organize a body of armed desperadoes to invade. Kansas for the purpose of getting up civil war. The political party with which the Senator from New York is identified, and of which it may be said he is the chief, in a convention at Buffalo, agreed to raise $100,000 a month to employ men and supply, arm, and equip them to invade Kansas, for the purpose of making war upon the law-and order men there. They have had their men hovering on the western boundary of Iowa for weeks waiting for the adjournment of Congress, and for the telegraphic dispatch to reach them announcing that the army bill had been defeated, so that the war could commence. You kept your forces there first. to control the election in Iowa by fraudulent and illegal votes, and then to be marched across the river to murder the inhabitants and burn the towns in Kansas. Your men were kept there for that purpose, receiving telegraphic information from their leaders here, and the moment they were informed that the army bill had been defeated, the civil war instantly commenced in Kansas Houses were burned, buildings destroyed, a post office consumed, innocent inhabitants shot down in cold blood, without the slightest pretext or provocation.

For weeks previous to that time-yes, for months previous-there had been peace, quiet, and order in Kansas. There was no disturbance there. The people were happy in the security that surrounded them, and there would never have been another telegraphic dispatch or communication conveying the sad intelligence of bloodshed and murder if Lane had not been sent there by the free soil party to get up civil war as a party movement. The facts of the case are too clear to allow any man to deny them; and there is no one of you who does not rejoice when the news of a new conflagration or of a new murder reaches you. It is notorious to every man in Washington that if you see the freesoilers with their eyes glistening, and congratulating each other, it is when they have heard of murder, of robbery, of larceny, of house burning in Kansas by their agents for political effect. I confess that it is a sad spectacle to behold; it is a mournful thought, that the blood of innocent men can be shed for party purposes, in pursuance of caucus arrangements, in order to control the presidential election; yet the fact is too glaring for any man to deny or doubt it. This invasion of Kansas is unprovoked; the murders are of the most barbarous and cruel. character; the Territory is being ravaged for the purpose of compelling citizens to rally in their defence and bring on a pitched battle, in order that you may there show some of your own men as martyrs sacrificed to freedom. Your daily prayers and nightly invocations are that a battle may take place, in which some men from the North may be murdered, that you may play the part of Mark Antony over the dead Caesars. If a pro-slavery man is killed, it is a glorious triumph in your estimation. If a free soiler is killed, it is so much political capital made for the stump and for the newspapers. It is on such an issue that the Senator from Massachusetts challenges and dares us to go before the country. Sir, it is an issue from which every feeling of my heart recoils. The idea that blood shall be spilled and murders perpetrated for political effect, is revolting to every sentiment of humanity. Yet, sir, if it must be so, let us carry this issue to the country, and charge these crimes on the heads of the men in this city who get them up and the party who sustain them. Sir, in my heart I believe that every drop of blood shed in Kansas rests upon the souls of the leaders of that political party which is organizing this civil war with a view to the presidential election. If they can rejoice in the prospect of consummating their plan of the campaign, their feelings are very different from mine.